36 things you don’t know about me & why it will help you sell more real estate

Do you want to build loyalty with your clients and prospects? Of course you do. Deep down you really mean it when you tell them you want to be their agent for life. Sure the repeat and referral business is good. But it also feels good to be valued that highly.

Part of building loyalty is letting people know who you are as a person. Tell them about your history, your funny stories and your not so great stories. All the things that make up who you are. When you start the conversation you allow your clients to join the conversation with you. Then before they know it they feel connected to you. They begin to share their stories with you. The trust has begun to form and you not only have a client for life, but a friend for life too.

Yet it is scary to share our real selves with the outside world isn’t it? We are so heavily guarded behind our happy social media profiles. There are many people who don’t get to see the real us. As connected as we are I think this truth makes us less connected than ever before.

How can you turn this around? I have a thought on this.

A few weeks ago I turned 36. In honor of my 36th birthday I want to share with you 36 things you don’t know about me. Is it scary to put all this out there? You betcha. There are some deeply personal things about me in this list. But I want to start a conversation with you. I want to get to know you and I want you to get to know me. I want to build loyalty and trust with you.

In return I want to show you how to do the same thing with your clients. I want to show you what a difference it can make in your business relationships. That by really letting people get to know you, you will build a solid business of repeat and referral clients.

And well, I kind of wanted to have some fun. For the real fun part I dare you to take the challenge at the end of this post. But to get to the challenge you have to get through all 36 things about me!

1. I met President Bush three times. Love him or hate him, he was the leader of the free world and meeting him was cool.

2. The reason I met President Bush is because I was campaigning for him while in college. One time when I was campaigning a woman rode up to me on her bike and spit on me. I didn’t love that!

3. I went to the University of Iowa. I bleed Hawkeye football. And yes I am a girl and yes I understand and love football.

4. Part of bleeding Hawkeye football has meant that my kids have learned some words they shouldn’t have in their short lives.

5. My favorite ice cream flavor is vanilla. If I have the choice of 100 ice cream flavors I will always choose vanilla.

6. Before I had kids I loved to fly in planes. Now I am nervous when I fly alone and straight up a nervous wreck when we all fly together.

7. My husband and I met at a networking event. We were introduced by my best friend and his co-worker. He had a hangover that morning and was not pleasant at all. Thankfully he turned that around!

8. When I was 10 my mom gave me a choice. She said I could continue to do chores around the house or go to work for her. I have been working ever since.

9. My mom used to pay me $5 to type the front of the URAR appraisal form for her. And by type I mean the old fashioned way on a typewriter.

10. My kids are in full time daycare because even though I work from home and am self-employed, I am still a full time working mother.

11. It took me 2 years, 2 surgeries, a lot of doctor appointments and even more prayers to get pregnant with my first child. Numbers two and three were helped along by two (or three) bottles of wine.

12. I have worked in residential and commercial real estate as an assistant, marketing consultant, title assistant and loan officer.

13. The only three jobs I ever did that weren’t real estate related were working at the movie theater for 4 short months before going back to real estate. Working in the parking ramps in college before graduating and working at the now defunct PeopleSoft, Inc. right out of college. I left PeopleSoft to go back into real estate.

15. I “started” in real estate when my mom was pregnant with me and she was selling houses. I am the third generation of my family in the real estate industry.

16. I have a mild to extreme obsession with Garth Brooks. We share the same birthday so that only helps feed my obsession.

17. I have Lupus and secondary Raynaud’s Phenomen and Sjögren’s Syndrome. At least one of them bothers me everyday.

18. I believe in the power of prayer. I have seen it help me and others more than once.

19. I love to scare my kids and not terrified scare, but jump out behind a door when they are walking through it scare. I even do this to the 19 month old. I am a good mom like that.

20. When I was a kid I wanted a Garfield phone so bad. My parents got me two cans with a string tied together. They put Garfield stickers on the cans and thought they were hilarious.

21. I dislike cold and snow but I love snowmen. I think they are cute!

22. I was born and raised in Iowa and that makes me proud! We are nice, caring, warm people!

23. I played the flute in junior high and high school. I was mediocre at best but my mom made me do it. One of the few things she could make me do.

24. My mom used to take me out of school during the day to come work with her when she had a lot of appraisals to get done. Those were my favorite days because I love working!

25. My first car was a blue Pontiac Grand Am named Potsy. I loved her more than anything!

26. I have a drive to succeed by something even I don’t understand in myself.

27. I like to play Barbies with my daughters. Dolls no, Barbies yes.

28. Both of my parents are self-employed. My grandfathers are/were self-employed. It’s a long tradition that I am proud to continue. I hope at least one of my children follow in my footsteps.

29. I love Miche purses and wish I could sell them. I can’t because I dislike multi-level marketing so much. So much.

30. My first business was selling art that my kid best friend and I made at our mothers’ garage sales when we were nine. We called our business The Art Club or TAC for short. We were not good artists. People were just nice to us.

31. I loved selling Girl Scout Cookies! I loved the competition, the different ways to ask people to buy the cookies and trying to overcome the objections. My kid best friend and I tried to outdo each other which made it more fun.

32. My best friend and I have been best friends for 20 years this year. We went to high school together, were college roommates all four years and moved to Minneapolis together. People always tell us how rare and special our friendship is. We know this and we cherish it. It’s weird for 36 year olds to call each other best friends but for us that signifies the importance of our relationship so we do!

33. I have recently figured out the number one thing that has held me back my entire life. Fear. I am learning to punch fear in the face and I am having fun doing it. Even if it freaks me out.

34. I went to Jamaica on a mission trip when I was 15. When we were leaving the country their soldiers were lining the streets with AK47’s or some big guns. It was scary! As a mom I don’t know how my parents let me go there. BUT I was so headstrong that I would have gone with or without their permission so I get that too.

35. I was supposed to be born a boy and my name was going to be Adam Michael. Depending on who you ask I was born 2 months to one week late. The doctor originally told my mom that I was due at the end of December. Then he switched it to January 19th. My poor mom was almost induced until I made the decision to come out on my own. So since birth I have been doing it my way which is good and bad!

36. Growing up I wanted to be an OB/GYN. I tried to do this for 2 years in college until I dropped out. I still like chemistry but math and I are not friends. At all. I went to summer school and worked my butt off after dropping out to graduate college in four years and on time.

Now that you know me a little better I feel like I can throw this dare out to you. I dare you to come up with at least 15 things the public doesn’t know about you. Post it on your blog. Include it in your next email newsletter. Share one item from your list everyday on social media. Include the list in your prelisting or buyer’s packets.

Dedicate a whole page to it on your website. I bet you it will be the most read page on your website. I will go one step further and say that if you had an email sign up form on this page you would get sign ups left and right. The page would be that popular.

Sure you could ignore this challenge and continue to hold up this ultra professional persona. You can stay the same like every other agent in your market. Or you can do something different and step outside of your comfort zone. Something wildly personal that will help you build long lasting relationships and build your business. Build a business that shows people you are real which makes them trust you instantly with referrals. Try it, what do you have to lose?

Are you up for this challenge? Yes you are! I want to see your 15 things people don’t know about you. After you have your list, please share it with me. I would love to get to know you better too! Do you agree with this idea or think it is stupid? I would love to hear that too. Please leave me a comment below!

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Jennifer Snyder

I am a Real Estate Marketing Consultant, Coach and Blogger. I love to explore and create solutions to problems in order to make people’s lives easier, happier and more rewarding. This includes providing ideas, tools and tips to Real Estate Agents to help them learn and grow their business!

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10 Comments

I could really relate to #35 on your list. My mom insisted that I was 6 weeks overdue-
I was supposed to be born around Christmas but I held out until 3 hours into Feb. 1.
I do love the amethyst birthstone that came along with being born into February.

Mom had planned to name me Noel but was so mad at my late arrival she changed her mind and named me after my grandmas and dropped Noel as my first name.
Mom’s regular doc was not available in the middle of the night so she got assigned to a brand new intern who had never delivered a baby before ever. Good thing I was Mom’s 3rd and last baby!Nancy Kay recently posted…6 Ways Life Really Gets Better After Divorce

Thanks for your comment Nancy! That is too funny! I love that your mom changed your name because she got mad. My mom said by January 19th she was getting pretty ticked off. Then to have me come out own my own accord well that didn’t help my situation. I was the first so poor woman that was her first experience.

I am much happier with amethyst myself although I did end up with a December baby so I will have the topaz in my mother’s ring!

Thank you so much for your comment Bryan! And your kind words about my blog! I hope people do too. I think if they take the time to really be authentic they will be rewarded with repeat and referral business.

Patrick this made my day! I love your list! Friends reading this you must check out Patrick’s 15 things. From cat embalming to the silver bullet this is well worth a read. Thank you for taking my challenge! Isn’t it fun to let people know more about you?! I hope your readers and clients do it for you. I am truly pumped that you did this!

#10!!!! I work from home and people assume that I have all of this free time because my kids go to school.

My husband works from home — no one assumes he has time to go to school to hand out mix boxes to the kids. (and is that really necessary anyways?)Jennifer @ The Jenny Evolution recently posted…Friday Flash Blog No. 106 {Plus Features}

Thanks for the comment Jennifer! Yes I get this all the time! People will say to me that if they worked at home they wouldn’t get any work done because they would be doing laundry, dishes, etc. Nope I have to ignore all that and keep on working!

That’s an interesting and sad point about your husband isn’t it? Thanks again for commenting!

Great idea! Thank God you said to list 15 things versus my age (53) lol! I will take the challenge asap. I’m tired of me right now! Over-posted, over-liked on a TGIF! I Your #33 will definitely be one of my 15!

Haha! I love it! A lot of people have said to me they are happy not to make a list as long as their age. I say then do it half your age! I can’t wait to see what you come up with. Please post a link back here so everyone can check it out. And if you want Sarah to throw the post up on the blog that will be on me 😉

Yes #33 gets me almost everyday. What an incredible emotion it is isn’t it?

Thank you for the compliment! It has been fun getting feedback from people. Thank you for commenting Kerry!

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